


Sonic Underground: Equestria Girls: Digital Series (pt. 1)

by GalacticDefender4679



Series: Sonic Underground: Equestria Girls [6]
Category: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, High School, Magic, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 14:56:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19087345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalacticDefender4679/pseuds/GalacticDefender4679
Summary: You know the basic plot, but it’ll go differently as it progresses through the line.





	1. Cracks

Things had started to calm down around Canterlot City after Juniper Montage was given the usual friendship talk, but the team was getting bored, as was emphasized by their using their free period to hang around in the main gym.

One thing that was unusual is that they had all changed to different outfits, at Sonia and Rarity’s request.

The guys all had the same shoes as before, but other than that, their clothes were much different.

Sonic was wearing a blue shirt the same color as his hair, with white on the wrists, collar and shoulders, a red vest with gold across the middle, and blue jeans.

Sonia had decided to swap out her usual, obviously tacky outfit, with a purple skirt, pink t-shirt, and deep blue jacket, and she had also gotten a gold necklace with a round emerald in the middle.

Manic had swapped out everything except his vest, fanny-pack, and medallion for a white t-shirt and black jeans, and he had gotten a special gold earring that was two rings secured together by a chain.

Tails was wearing a brown pilot’s jacket over an orange t-shirt and blue jeans with a tool-belt around his waist.

Knuckles was wearing a long-sleeved version of his old shirt, grape purple goggles on his forehead and dark green cargo pants with torn spots on the legs and a belt wrapped around his left leg.

Shadow was wearing a different leather jacket with white fur on the collar, a black t-shirt, his old black jeans and had moved his pistol holster, now upgraded to a Desert Eagle, to inside his jacket. One other difference was that earlier that week he had been forced to stop a grenade at a bank robbery and it had left a scar conveniently shaped like the symbol of the Black Arms, part of it extending up to his neck.

Silver was wearing bright white pants with a gold belt, a white fog-coat with cyan lining, fur epaulets secured by gold chains over a black shirt, and he had grown the locks on the back of his head out. The good news was that his powers were helping to heal his burn scars, so his face looked a lot more normal than it had.

Twilight Sparkle was wearing a blue striped shirt and purple skirt with white stars and her insignia all over it, along with new black Mary Jane shoes.

Sunset Shimmer was wearing smaller black boots with studs all over them, a purple wrap-around skirt, a black leather vest and an orange shirt with her insignia on her chest.

Rainbow Dash was wearing a mid-riffed denim jacket over a white t-shirt with her insignia on her chest, deep purple skintight pants with a rainbow-colored lightning bolt on each leg and bright blue sneakers.

Fluttershy was wearing a light blue shirt and skirt with her butterflies on her side, a butterfly belt, and pink boots.

Applejack’s outfit wasn’t that different, other than the frill on the bottom of her denim skirt, and her white t-shirt with green sleeves and a red apple on her chest.

Pinkie Pie was wearing a pink tutu and high-heeled pink sneakers, along with a white tank top with her balloon insignia on her chest.

Rarity was wearing a bright blue blouse over a tight purple skirt and purple sneakers with light blue high-heels.

“God, when did high school become so boring…?” asked Sonic as he slid down the bleachers comedically.

“It’s only been a week since Juniper went haywire, Sonic,” said Sunset. “Lay off.” Then out of nowhere, Silver, Knuckles, and Shadow felt a twinge of pain in their heads. They looked at each other.

“You guys feel that too?” asked Shadow.

“Yeah, what was that?” asked Knuckles.

“What was what?” asked Applejack. Just then, Principal Celestia walked in and slipped hurriedly up to the team.

“There’s something you’re going to want to see,” she said.

“Is it something I can slice?” asked Sonic, drawing Caliburn from his now belt-mounted scabbard. “I seriously need to slice something right now.”

“I’m not sure, but… You’re going to want to see it for yourselves,” said the principal. Everyone looked around at each other, then quickly got up and followed the principal to the faculty lounge, which had a small crowd of teachers gathered outside, giving indistinct excited and/or urgent whispers.

“So where is this thing?” asked Tails.

“Inside,” said the principal, pointing into the room. The team walked into the lounge and once they were all inside, they froze in awe at what they saw.

“Holy…” started Sonia.

“Connolly-frijoles,” finished Manic. They saw a tiny red-and-orange bird hopping madly around the room, leaving tiny short-lived flames wherever it jumped from, which quickly died into the scorch marks that were covering the room like a bad rash.

“What is that thing?” asked Vice Principal Luna.

“Fire-colored bird, leaves fire wherever it goes,” said Sonic. “I’d say we’re looking at a phoenix.”

“A baby phoenix, yeah,” said Sunset. “But what’s it doing here?”

“Presently? Saving half my first-period class from failing yesterday’s pop quiz,” said Ms. Harshwhinny irritably.

“Phew! Thank God, because I was not prepared for that,” said Sonic.

“You and me both,” said Rainbow as the two fist-bumped.

“So where’d this thing come from anyway?” asked Sonia.

“No idea,” said Celestia. “It just showed up out of nowhere and went insane, so we had to evacuate the lounge.”

“Incredible,” said Twilight, looking as close at the Phoenix as she could. “A real-life Phoenix? I always assumed they were a myth.”

“Trust me, they’re real,” said Sunset.

“Sounds like there’s a ‘but’ coming in there,” said Shadow.

“Yeah, they’re only real in Equestria,” said Sunset.

“So then what’s it doing here?” asked Knuckles.

“I don’t know,” said Sunset.

“Umm… Could you please worry about that stuff later?” Ms. Cheerilee asked impatiently. “Maybe after you get it _out of the faculty lounge_?!”

“Keep your shirt on, sweetheart, we’re getting’ to it,” said Manic. Quickly, he jumped for the bird, but it eluded his grasp and he fell onto the couch. The others tried, but got the same results, landing elsewhere in the lounge. Then Sonic zipped after it and grabbed it with one hand.

“Gotcha!” he said before he felt a searing heat on his hand. “OUCH!” He was forced to let go of the animal, but just as it tried to get away, Rarity used her powers to create a cage out of gems to trap the bird in. Then Fluttershy activated her powers and leaned in to whisper to the bird, not to be afraid, and naturally, the Phoenix understood her and stood still, its colors dulling a bit.

“I think it’s safe now, Rarity,” said Silver. Rarity opened the cage and let the Phoenix hop out into Fluttershy’s arms, not burning her.

“Interesting,” said Tails, taking notes on his handheld. “Apparently, when Phoenix colors dull, their fire powers are lessened and they don’t burn.”

“You were just scared, weren’t you girl?” asked Fluttershy in a calming voice. The phoenix cooed to her in agreement. “You wanted to know where you were. Oh! I bet you’re hungry, aren’t you girl?”

“That raises a good question,” said Sonic as the team left the lounge. “What do phoenixes usually eat?” Sunset scratched her head.

“Well, the adults eat fish and rodents and stuff like that,” she said. “But the babies… They can’t eat anything they can’t burn.”

“And I assume water would basically be poison to them, correct?” asked Shadow.

“Correct,” said Sunset.

“So it needs fuel, like a fire, also correct?” asked Celestia.

“Also correct,” responded Sunset. “And probably a fireproof cage so it doesn’t accidentally torch anything.”

“I have just the thing in my van,” said Fluttershy, stroking the phoenix’s feathers. “Sonic, can you run out and grab it? There should be a steel cage in the back.” Then she handed him the keys.

“On it,” said Sonic and he rocketed out and back with the cage in three seconds. Fluttershy told the chick the cage was safe and she slipped in herself.

“So let’s just grab it some wood and useless paper or something,” said Sonic. “And as for drink, I’m pretty sure Shadow’s got some pretty sweet bourbon on him somewhere.” He quickly zipped into the lounge and found an unopened pack of printer paper as all eyes shifted to Shadow.

“What? I’m like seventy back on Mobius, and I work for a spy agency. Every once in a while, I need a drink or something,” he said as he fished a black metal flask out of his jacket, along with a thimble which he filled with alcohol. “Besides, this stuff burns fast, so it’ll be perfect for the kid.” Then he slipped the thimble into the cage, allowing the chick to pick it up with her beak and slurp it all down before handing it back. Manic also produced a small container of toothpicks and slipped them in as well.

“I doubt this phoenix is here alone though,” said Tails. “If it got through, maybe something else did too.”

“Well, I already checked the portal, and it’s sealed up tight,” said Sonic. “So that’s one thing we can scratch off the list.”

“We’re gonna need a tracking device,” said Silver.

“And thankfully, I built myself a new one,” said Twilight, producing a small device similar to a PKE meter from “Ghostbusters”. Everyone eyed her suspiciously, but she looked back at them confidently. “Don’t worry. This thing is only designed to track magic, not capture. Already learned that the hard way.” Then Sonic sniffed and doubled over.

“Whoa! God! What is that unholy stench?!” he asked.

“What stench- Whoa! Geez, oh man!” yelled Knuckles. “Smells like something crawled into the furnace and died! And then they turned the furnace on!”

“Well, whatever’s creating that stench, it’s also giving off magic readings,” said Twilight, looking at her tracker. “It’s up at the track!” Quickly, the team raced up to the track and stopped when they saw it. It was a giant wolf-like monster made of wood and leaves, its eyes glowing bright green.

“What the tambourine testicles is that thing?!” asked Manic as they all looked at it.

“That… is a Timberwolf,” said Sunset. “And they are by far the most dangerous things in all of Equestria.”

“So what should we do?” asked Sonic. Then the wolf turned to them and roared.

“RUN!” yelled Rarity. And that is exactly what they did. They ran all the way around to the front of the school and ran to the door.

“It’s getting closer!” yelled Shadow as he shot his pistol back at it. “And my gun isn’t working!”

“You guys go on ahead, we’ll handle it!” said Knuckles as he and Applejack stopped and faced the beast. Applejack activated her powers and the two gave a strong double-punch to the beast, shattering it into a pile of wood before they ran into the foyer with the others.

“Whew! Well, that was easy,” said Applejack, wiping her brow.

“Easy? You just made it worse,” said Sunset.

“What do you mean? We punched that thing into kindling,” said Knuckles.

“Yeah, but Timberwolves…” began Sunset as the twigs left over from the beast shattering reformed into the wolf itself and it moved to scratch at the front door. “…can do that.”

“That might’ve been handy to know about FIVE SECONDS AGO!” yelled Knuckles.

“Okay, so how do we kill this thing?” asked Shadow, as he Chaos Controlled a large rifle into his hands. “I got this Coreburner; 500 magnesium-core incendiary bullets. Think that’ll work?”

“Doubt it,” said Sunset. “If I recall my studies correctly, these things are unkillable. You can turn its body into toothpicks, but the magic that animated it will probably just find something else to bring to life.”

“Okay, so we remove the magic from it and then we can kill it,” said Shadow. “Twilight, please tell me you still have a magic siphon.”

She just shuddered. “No way,” she said. “After what happened at the Friendship Games, I destroyed that thing.”

“Can you make another, more focused one?” asked Sonic.

“No, I’d need to get to my lab,” said Twilight.

“Wait, why don’t we just modify my arm-cannon to do it?” asked Tails, converting his red bracer into the large cannon the others were familiar with. Twilight looked it over and smiled.

“That might work,” she said.

“Yeah, I mean we’re gonna need to MacGyver some parts to make it work, but it should do fine,” said Tails.

“Mobius has MacGyver?” asked Rainbow.

“Every universe has MacGyver, Chris Rhodes,” said Sonic smugly. Rainbow creased her brow at him, but that didn’t stop Tails and Twilight from diving into the trash cans and bags in the foyer, piecing together materials. Then the principal ran to the foyer.

“We have another problem,” she said. “In the gym.” Rainbow, obviously, ran ahead with her powers before Sonic could say anything, and he just sighed in angst.

“What do we got this time?” he asked.

“You’re going to want to see it to believe it,” said Celestia. Quickly, Sonic, Shadow, Pinkie, and Sunset ran after Rainbow to the gym and stopped cold in the doorway wide-eyed.

“Seeing it,” said Sonic.

“Still working on the believing,” said Shadow. About two dozen students, all in their underwear, and two gym coaches were hiding under the bleachers the team was hanging out on just moments before and in the middle of the gym was the most ridiculous scene everyone there had ever seen.

Rainbow was getting chased around the gym in circles by a bird monster about as big as a Rottweiler, covered in black, brown and white feathers with six freakin’ legs; an orange pair in front raised like a T-Rex’s arms, a yellow-orange pair in the middle with webbed toes, and a scaly dark gray pair in the back. It had a green head with a red comb and a short sharp beak with a large snood dangling from it, and it spat fireballs at Rainbow’s heels, letting out a loud cry of “ _Quobblck_!” every time it shot a fireball.

“Well, if there was ever a time for this song, this is it,” said Sonic and he pulled out a white mp3 player, plugged it into a speaker and hit the play button to play “Yakety Sax”. Everyone under the bleachers started laughing and Rainbow just glared at Sonic.

“Seriously?! A little help here would be appreciated!” she said. The other three with Sonic just laughed as well.

“S-Sorry, sorry,” Sonic choked out as he put down the mp3 and speaker on a nearby chair. “Uh, does anybody have any idea what the f*** happened here?”

“I do, over here,” said Bon-Bon as she walked out from under the bleachers, still in her underwear. “That thing showed up in the locker room while we were changing out for gym. Obviously, we started freaking out, coach put in a call and then Rainbow comes in and kicks it in the face, which pissed it off and made it chase her out here.”

“So then why are you not changed out?” asked Shadow.

“And miss this, are you kidding?” asked Bon-Bon.

“Fair enough,” said Sunset.

“Besides, that thing basically torched the locker room and most of our clothes so…” said Bon-Bon.

“Point taken,” said Sonic. “So Sunset, uh quick questions; What the f*** is that thing and how do we beat it?”

“I honestly have no idea what that thing is,” said Sunset. “Maybe some, uh… some sort of chimera?”

“It’s a Turducken!” said Pinkie.

“A you-say-what-now?” asked Shadow.

“A turducken,” said Pinkie. “Cmon, just look at it. Part turkey, part duck, part chicken.” Everyone paused to digest that.

“Okay whatever, so how do you explain the fireball thing?” asked Sonic. Just then, the turducken squatted and laid an egg, confusing literally everyone there.

“Huh,” said Pinkie. “Could’ve sworn that was a boy.”

“I think it’s both,” said Shadow, pointing to its lower region. The others looked and were instantly appalled.

“Oh, sweet merciful Chaos!!!” yelled Sonic, quickly grabbing a nearby trash can and blowing chunks into it. “Who would do something like this?! Oh God, this looks worse than that Jonathan Lipnicki scene from ‘Family Guy’!”

**Flashback**

Sonic was watching “Family Guy” on Netflix in the team’s apartment and had looked up a young picture of Jonathon Lipnicki, having heard he was in the episode he was watching.

“All right, if I’ve learned anything from romantic comedies, it’s that the ex-wife always falls in love with her husband again after he befriends a little kid,” said Peter.

“Okay,” said Carter.

“And the kid needs to be really cute, so I ordered Jonathan Lipnicki,” said Peter. Then the doorbell rang. “Ah, there’s the cute little guy now. Hang on.” Then he got up, walked offscreen and opened the door. “Oh, my God, what happened to you?!” That alone scared Sonic. “Oh! Oh!! We- We gotta get you to the hospital! Ah-Ah! You’re hideous! Who did this to you?!?” Then he ran back on screen and began digging through the drawer next to Carter. “Oh! Oh, where my keys?! Where’s my keys?! Where are my keys?!”

“Peter, what about Babs?” asked Carter.

“Forget about yourself for a second, Carter!” said Peter. “Look what has happened to Jonathan Lipnicki!” The camera turned and revealed an extremely ugly man with an abnormally long mouth.

“Oh sweet Christ, why?!” yelled Sonic, looking away.

**Back to the present**

The turducken then just kicked the egg at Rainbow with its duck feet. Rainbow just jumped away laughing.

“Seriously?” she asked. “You were better off with the fireballs, ya bird-brained-” Then the egg exploded, knocking Rainbow into the wall with enough force for her body to leave an indent. “OW!”

“Okay, new rule!” said Sonic. “How about we don’t piss off the magic monsters?”

“Deal,” said Rainbow in pain. “Now, please tell me you have some sort of healing thing?”

“SENZU BEAN!” yelled Sonic and he threw one of said beans straight into Rainbow’s mouth, where she ate it and instantly jumped out of the wall, rejuvenated.

“Whoo! Damn, that was good!” she said. “Okay, so how do we-” Then a loud gunshot was heard, and the turducken fell to the ground, with a bloody hole right between its eyes with brain matter leaking out of the hole. Shadow had his pistol in his hand and the barrel was smoking which he quickly blew away like a badass before putting the gun away. Then he turned and saw everyone looking at him weirdly.

“What?” asked Shadow. “That thing was too horrifying to let live.”

“Okay, no argument there, but still,” said Sonic.

“What just happened in here?” asked Rarity as she walked in with Fluttershy. “We heard a gun and- Oh dear Christ, what is that thing?!”

“Trust me,” said Sonic. “You’d be better off not knowing.” Then Fluttershy grabbed the trash can and started throwing up too. “You looked at its junk, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” said Fluttershy. “Worst mistake of my life.” Then Sonic looked her over and his nose started bleeding.

“Uh, why are you soaking wet?” he asked.

“Huh? Oh, the timberwolf was almost in, so Knuckles tried hitting it with the fire hose in the foyer,” said Fluttershy. “It sort of worked, but the water got literally everywhere.”

“Okay, cool. Now follow-up question; you have an extra shirt, right?” asked Sonic. “And a bra?”

“Huh?” asked Fluttershy. She looked down and saw that the water she got hit with made her shirt completely see-through, illustrating that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Her face turned as red as Knuckles as she wrapped her arms around her chest.

“Oy vey,” said Sunset, rolling her eyes. “I knew this was gonna happen sooner or later. Cmon, I’ve got something in my bag you can borrow until you get home.” Then she led Fluttershy into the locker room.

“Shouldn’t she get dress-coded for that?” asked Sonic, pointing after them with his thumb.

“I’m just surprised you’re noticing now,” said Rainbow.

“What was I supposed to do?” asked Sonic. “Say ‘Hey Fluttershy, you’re wearing a bra today, right?’ How would that not make things awkward? Also, Fluttershy seems like the last person to do something like that. So, explanation?”

“Medical condition,” said Pinkie. “She can’t wear a bra. Doctor’s orders.”

“Seriously?” asked Sonic.

“Yeah,” said Tails as he walked in. “Remember? I bunked with her and Vinyl at Camp Everfree. She explained everything. I forget what it’s called, but it’s pretty major.”

**Also, I don’t know what the condition is called in the first place, so if someone could get back to me on that, that’d be great.**

“Oh well, that explains a lot,” said Sonic. “Anyways, let’s just hope that’s the last monster- not the last monster. Not the last monster!” Everyone looked and saw a scaly winged being with a chicken head swoop down.

“Cockatrice! Don’t look it in the eyes, it’ll turn you to stone!” yelled Shadow. Everyone quickly looked away as it swooped.

“Tails, please tell me you managed to get that magic siphon thing done?” asked Sonic.

“Unfortunately, no,” said Tails. “We still need one key component. Twilight’s improvising one as we speak, but the plasma blaster still works.”

“Then use it!” said Shadow. Tails quickly pulled on a pair of goggles and blasted at the monster, but it dodged and looked straight into his eyes, turning him into a statue.

“Okay, plan B!” said Sonic, drawing Caliburn. Then he held the blade up to the monster’s face, and a bolt of white lightning shot out of it and hit the monster, causing it to disappear in a spinning warp. Then Tails turned back to normal.

“Did I miss something?” he said.

“I think we all did,” said Celestia.

“Sonic, what was that?” asked Rarity.

“I have no idea,” said Sonic. “I think it might be the geode in Caliburn’s handle.”

“But why is it empowering him so much?” asked Rainbow.

“I’ve been working on that since we got out of that mirror,” said Tails. “I’ve looked through the No-Zone Archives for any reference to a rainbow-colored geode I could possibly find, but come up empty.”

“Did you check Silver’s double’s records?” asked Shadow.

“Oh yeah, he’s from the future, so he might have something,” said Tails as he checked that, and his eyes went wide. “Oh my God.”

“What? Good? Bad?” asked Sonic.

“Very good,” said Tails. “That stone isn’t just any geode. That’s the Philosopher’s Stone!” Everyone looked at the sword in awe as Sonic held him up.

“The source of all of Excalibur’s hidden powers,” he said. “So this means we don’t need that gun. We just need me. Or rather, King Arthur.” Then he smirked. “Think we have enough power to do this alone, partner?”

“Undoubtedly, Sir Sonic,” said the blade. “Just twist the stone, and your armor will appear!” Sonic smirked and twisted the Philosopher’s Stone in the handle, and his sword started glowing. Then gold armor started appearing on his body, first with gold boots, then gauntlets, bracers and a chestplate. Then a long red cape fell from his shoulders. The front part of a gold helmet, including visor, slapped onto his face. He then slammed the visor shut with his left hand, causing the back part of it to appear. Then Caliburn’s blade started turning to gold, which he then swung in front of him, causing a huge flare of golden light energy, causing a beautiful light aura to appear around the blade.

“Behold,” said Caliburn. “The power of the greatest of the Sacred Swords. Excalibur!”

“Ha!” said Sonic, swinging his blade. “Let’s do this!” Then he shot out of the gym in one strong thrust of his blade. Out front, he suddenly appeared behind the timberwolf.

“What the-?” asked Knuckles inside.

“Hey Woody!” yelled Sonic. “Yeah, I’m talking to you, you giant pile of kindling!” The timberwolf turned to him and charged. “Lights out!” Then he shot at the beast and stabbed it, creating a wormhole on Excalibur’s tip, sending the monster spiraling away into it back to Equestria. Then he heard a loud roar behind him. He looked and saw a large lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail.

“Manticore,” he said and smirked under his helmet. “Piece of cake.” Then he jumped up at the beast and slashed at it, but the beast dodged. Sonic just landed and let the cut he made in the air do the rest as a strong wind started billowing into it, and pulled the monster into it.

“Sonic, how did you just do that?” asked Knuckles.

“To make a long story short, the Rainbow Geode is the Philosopher’s Stone, and I can banish monsters from Equestria back to where they came from just by hitting them with this bad boy,” said Sonic. Then he saw a large red dragon above the city. “Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to go become a superhero.” Then he shot into the air. Everyone in the foyer looked at each other and smirked.

“This is gonna be awesome,” said Knuckles.

“Oh, hell yeah it is,” said Manic. Over the city, the dragon was circling, as if trying to find a way home when Sonic showed up.

“Hey, scaly!” he yelled.

“The name’s Garble, goldy!” yelled the dragon in English.

“Oh, so you speak English?” asked Sonic. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll take you down anyway.”

“We’ll see about that,” yelled Garble, shooting fire at the knight who just took it, his armor dispersing the impact and letting the flame coast over his body. “What the-?”

“How about we fight like men?” asked Sonic. Garble just growled and swung his claws at Sonic, who knocked them away with Caliburn, before slashing across the air in front of his stomach, sending him flying back to Equestria. The people down on the ground were watching and were amazed when they saw him. Sonic smiled down at the populace as he jumped down and hit the ground like a tank, causing a small earthquake.

“My lords, ladies and gentlemen,” he said in an English accent. “Tis I, King Arthur Pendragon, returned from the grave to defend the world once again! You need not fear me! I come to protect you with my mighty blade!” The people just cheered and applauded as Sonic quickly roared away back to the school, where he powered down and sheathed Caliburn.

“Announcing your presence?” asked Shadow. “That seems very dumb.”

“Hey, I saved them,” said Sonic. “I don’t wanna end up like Oliver did when he started his campaign as a vigilante in Star City.”

“Fair enough, but still,” said Knuckles.

“Progress report on the monsters,” said Sonic. “I need it now.”

“I’ve written to Princess Twilight,” said Sunset. “She says that there are about five different cracks between our two realities and that the monsters got here through them. Only problem is that they can only be closed from this side.”

“So, all we have to do is seal them up from this side, and we’re good,” said Sonic. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Yeah, that’s the hard part,” said Tails. “We have no idea where the cracks are.”

“Found one,” said Knuckles, standing on the plinth that once held the Wondercolt statue. Sonic quickly zipped up to it and saw Knuckles was right; there was a sizable crack in the marble of the plinth, which looked like it connected to the portal.

“Well, this seems easy enough,” said Sonic, pulling Caliburn out. Then he touched the tip of his blade to the crack and it instantly sealed. “Okay, one down, four to go. But let’s save them for later, kay?”

“Sounds good to me,” said Sunset. “I think we all need some rest after today.”

“Agreed,” said Celestia. “All students are dismissed.” Everyone laughed as they walked home remembering the craziness that just happened.


	2. A Fine Line

It had been a while since the craziness at school, and the team was still working on locating the cracks between realities, but they figured a little time off wouldn’t hurt. And Sunset took this time to drag Shadow to the mall to get her hands on a new video game.

“Remind me again why you’re making me do this?” asked Shadow.

“Because I’m your girlfriend and you love me?” suggested Sunset.

“God, I hate you,” said Shadow. “You’re right, but I hate you.” Once at the mall, they saw a line with Sandalwood at the back.

“Hey!” said Sunset. “Is this the line for the new _Tirek’s Revenge_ video game?”

“Yeah,” said Sandalwood. Shadow looked and saw a sign with a game logo that looked straight-up awesome.

“Okay, I take back everything I said about this idea,” he said. “This looks epic!”

“It should be!” said Sunset. “The first game, _Rise of Tirek_ , was awesome! I’ve been waiting ages for the sequel.”

“Whoa, whoa,” said Sandalwood. “Don’t get too hyped up just yet. This here is the line, for the line.”

“Wait, what?” asked Shadow. They looked up ahead and saw a huge line of people ahead of them, waiting in front of the game store. Some of them even looked like they had been camping out. “Are you kidding me?” Sunset checked her phone and saw the time was ticking by, so she gave an exasperated sigh.

“Hey, it’s about the quest with your buds,” said Sandalwood philosophically. “Not the loot.” Then he and his friend Microchips fist-bumped.

“True, but the loot’s good too,” said Shadow. Sometime later, they were still waiting, Sunset was checking her phone, Shadow was cleaning his gun, and Microchips and Sandalwood were playing with a hacky-sack.

“Can you believe we’ve already been here three hours?” asked the hippy. “Time flies when you’re with your best friends!” Shadow growled as he locked his gun ready. Then the two ahead of them started doing trust-falls.

“That looks unsafe.” said a familiar voice. Shadow and Sunset looked and were surprised.

“Rainbow Dash?” asked Sunset.

“Sonic?” asked Shadow. “What are you guys doing here? I thought you were helping whip the track team into shape.”

“Finished up early,” said Sonic. “So where are the others?”

“Uh, I didn’t think they’d wanna do this,” said Sunset. Sonic had an idea and passed it on to Rainbow with sign-language, and she nodded. “But hey, at least you’re here!” Then the two speedsters rocketed away in two colored streaks.

“Aaannnd, now they’re gone,” said Shadow. “Pricks.” Then the hacky-sack from earlier flew inches over Shadow’s head. “Whoa! What the heck, dude?”

“Oop! My bad! Sometimes things get outta hand when you’re having this much fun with your best friends!” said Sandalwood. Shadow growled and reached into his jacket, but then Manic popped up.

“Yo dude,” he said, with the hacky-sack in his hand. “Lose something?” He threw it back, and Shadow and Sunset were surprised when they saw the rest of the gang there.

“What are you guys doing here?” asked Shadow.

“We asked if they wanted to do this,” said Sonic. “Turns out they did,” Shadow smirked at him and the two of them shared a fist-bump. With the rest of the gang there, the time blew past like nothing as they did fun activities together; paper art, tending make-up (for the ladies, and in one hilarious incident, Spike), even getting in some band practice until at last, they were at the store.

“Wow! It’s my turn already?” asked Sunset.

“Well, you know what they say,” said Silver. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

“You would know,” said Knuckles, smacking him on the back. “You’re a time-traveler.” Then the clerk slapped a big red X on the poster.

“Sorry,” he said. “Just sold the last one.”

“Oh come on!” yelled Sonic.

“Sorry Sunset,” said Shadow as the others gathered around her.

“Aw, it’s alright,” said Sunset. “I got to hang out with you guys. Who cares about a dumb video game?”

“Oh! _That’s_ what we were waiting for?” asked Pinkie. “I just thought we were having a super-duper fun line party!” Then she reached into her hair and pulled out a copy of the game. “I preordered it for you weeks ago.”

“And you couldn’t have bothered to mention that sooner?” chuckled Sonic as Sunset took the game.

“Ya know what the _best_ part of this game is?” she asked.

“Uh, the quests?” asked Applejack.

“The powerups?” asked Rainbow.

“The kickass swag?” asked Manic.

“The revenge?” asked Fluttershy in a disconcerting tone.

“Easy there, tiger,” said Tails.

“It’s multiplayer,” said Shadow. “And if the news is correct, it just became available on Steam.”

“Oh yeah, baby!” said Sonic and the others cheered. That night, the guys were at Sunset’s admittedly swanky-ass house playing the new game when Tails stepped up to try and get everyone’s attention.

“What’s up, dude?” asked Sonic.

“I think I came up with a way to find the cracks,” said Tails. “Cisco told me they used this idea when they had to deal with Zoom and the breaches the Singularity caused about two years ago. Exotic matter.”

“You mean transdimensional energy?” asked Twilight.

“Like the power of the Speed Force?” asked Sonic.

“Or Equestrian magic,” said Sunset.

“Exactly,” said Tails. “As proved by Team Flash when they were trying to track the breaches, exotic matter, aka transdimensional energy, will leak from one universe to the next. Now, if we can figure out what wavelength the exotic matter of Equestria is generating and thus, emanating from these cracks…”

“We could send those numbers over to Cisco and have him adjust and upload an electrophotography program to the STAR Labs satellite and essentially…” said Shadow.

“Take a picture of the city and figure out where the magic leak is?” asked Rainbow.

“Thereby giving us the location of each individual crack,” said Twilight excitedly.

“Last time I saw my gear, it was with my arm cannon when I checked it at the door,” said Tails with gradually increasing excitement.

“I’ll be right back,” said Twilight as she and Spike left to grab the gear.

“Oh-hoo-hoo!” said Tails. Twilight gave a proud laugh from down the hall. “I’m gettin’ gooseys!” Quickly he flew after Twilight and all the others looked around at each other unusually.

“Yeah, I got like none of that,” said Applejack. “So, if someone could, y’know, explain…?”

“Ah, probably just nerd stuff,” said Rainbow.

“If you’ll recall, mien freund, that nerd stuff is what let Team Flash take down basically every threat to Central City there has ever been,” said Sonic. “And as Tails himself said, if this plan worked so well for them, why shouldn’t it for us?”

“Because we don’t have access to the laboratory’s satellite?” asked Rarity.

“Hey, two of the best technological geniuses of two different universes here, people,” said Tails as he and Twilight came back in with his cannon and equipment. “Besides, I’ve hacked G.U.N.’s satellite so many times I can’t even count, you think I can’t hack the one Harrison Wells put into space?”

“Wait, you were the one doing that?” asked Shadow. “Commander Tower’s been on my ass for months about that.”

“Hey, I needed to know which G.U.N. ammo dumps Eggman might hit, can you blame me?” asked Tails. “Besides, now we know how to find the cracks. Plus, even if we can’t hack that satellite, which BTDubs we totally could, we have an ‘in’ with the lab crew, thanks to our relationship with the freaking Flash him-freaking-self.”

“So what, we just run those numbers over to Central City and have Team Flash take a look at them?” asked Rainbow.

“Why not?” asked Sonic. “We’ll make a field day out of it. This weekend. Sound good?”

“Sure. I wouldn’t mind a trip,” said Sunset. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Canterlot’s great, but without any magical catastrophes, it’s gotten kinda, y’know…”

“Stale?” suggested Knuckles.

“Yeah, basically,” said Sunset. “Sure, why not? Let’s do it.”

“Alright,” said Sonic. “Meet outside school Saturday morning.”


	3. The Witch

The following Saturday, the team had gathered in front of the school, but as they were preparing for the voyage, Sonic looked across the street and saw someone in a trenchcoat and fedora, but the brief glimpse he got at their face looked a bit like Abacus Cinch; the former principal of Crystal Prep Academy.

“Hey,” said Manic. “Dude. We’re all set.”

“Huh? Oh right, okay,” he said and walked back to the others. “Shadow, you may warp when ready.” Then he heard fast footsteps on the road, coming toward them. He checked across the street and was surprised to see the person in the trenchcoat was gone. Shadow paid him no heed as he pulled out the green Chaos Emerald.

“Chaos… CONTROL!” he said and the team disappeared in a flash of green light before reappearing on the top of an unfamiliar building.

“Whoa!” said Twilight as they all braced against the strong wind. “Where are we?”

“Judging from our position, I’d say we’re on top of Baldwin Tower in Central City,” said Sonic. “So, what the heck Shadow? I thought I told you to warp us to the Cortex at STAR Labs.”

“Hey, I tried, but it’s been way too long since we’ve been here,” said Shadow. “I forgot the layout.”

“Ah well, doesn’t matter,” said Sonic. “The lab is over there somewhere. We’ll just take the fast lane. Sound good, boys?”

“Sounds like fun,” said Sonia, who had brought her motorcycle, and Manic his board.

“Tails, can you give us a plasma road, please?” asked Sonic.

“Easily,” said Tails as he pulled out a small generator and threw it off the edge of the building before it started hovering and generated a lane of plasma over the streets, which Sonic and Rainbow started running on. Tails quickly pulled out a miniaturized Tornado, threw it into the air to allow it to grow to full size and jump into it, letting Fluttershy hop in the back seat and fly after them.

Silver flew off with his powers and Rarity followed with another shield under her feet. Applejack just used her strength to use super-powered jumps to follow the team as Knuckles started gliding after them on his dreadlocks. Shadow knocked Sunset into his arms with a sweeping kick and started skating after the team. Manic pulled Pinkie onto his board and flew off as Sonia drove down the plasma road on her bike. Twilight used her powers to levitate herself and Spike after them until they all grouped back up and roared over the city.

Then Sonic saw a red streak with yellow lightning bolts coursing around it running below them. “That’ll be Barry!” he said. But then he saw another streak; this one yellow with red lightning.

“And who’s that?” asked Twilight.

“Well, only two real possibilities,” said Shadow. “It’s either the Reverse-Flash or Barry’s adopted brother, Wally West aka Kid Flash.” And when the two streaks jumped up onto the plasma lane, they saw it was the second option, as they saw a young African-American man in a yellow suit with the top of the mask cut off.

“How ya doin, Barry?” asked Sonic, but when he looked the Flash over, he saw some serious differences. The suit itself was brighter red, it appeared to be made of a tighter-fitting material, there were more obvious yellow lightning bolt decals on the chest, and the boot and glove cuffs were gold, as well as the ear-pieces and belt.

“Long time no see, Sonic,” said Barry as he started slowing down.

“Don’t stop,” said Tails. “This thing will fall out from under you if you stop.” After hearing that, Barry and Wally quickly started speeding up.

“So where is this thing gonna stop?” asked Wally.

“There,” said Silver, pointing to the lab. And he was right; the lane was starting to dip down to the ground, allowing the team to slide on the lane the rest of the way. Then, once the team’s vehicles were set down and locked up, everyone went inside and into the Cortex to see Cisco in his Vibe suit aiming his arm at the guys, Caitlin with a large futuristic gun, and Joe and Iris with standard handguns, all of which were aimed at the team in the door.

“Nice to see you guys too,” said Sonic. “We’re just here for some help with something.”

“It’s okay guys,” said Barry, taking off his mask. “It’s Sonic and the others, nothing major.” The others lowered their weapons and Cisco took off his goggles.

“Okay, so what do you guys need?” he asked. Sunset slapped her journal down on the table and looked around.

“Barry, you remember what happened back at Camp Everfree, like forever ago, right?” asked Sonic.

“And how you guys were using insane powers to save those kids from that plant person? Yeah, why?” asked Barry.

“Well, believe it or not, all that was magic,” said Sunset. “And as of now, there are cracks in our town between the world that gave us that magic and this one. And we need help to find them. There should be about four, since we sealed up one, but we have no idea where the others are. So we need to use your satellite.”

“Lemme guess,” said Barry. “You need to find an exotic matter leak?”

Sonic clapped his hands together and smiled at his fellow speedster. “Nailed it!” he said.

“Sounds easy enough,” said Cisco, getting on the computer. “Still got the numbers from Zoom, but I doubt they’ll work the same.”

“Yeah, we’re gonna need a new electrophotography program,” said Caitlin.

“I have another idea,” said Twilight, moving to a glass dry erase board with a marker before she began drawing. “I’m fairly certain your satellite has energy scanners, which the amazingly fraudulent Dr. Wells sent up, probably to scan for upticks in the Speed Force, so if we can manage to hack those, which I’m fairly certain Tails and I can do, we can update it to scan for Equestrian Magic.”

“Already done,” said Tails on a different computer. “All I need is a source of some sort.” Sonic reached for his sword. “Not Caliburn, Sonic; his power is a blend of Equestrian and his own. We need pure Equestrian magical energy.” Sunset snapped her fingers.

“How about my journal?” she suggested. Tails looked at her and smiled.

“That oughtta do it,” he said. “These cracks are working pretty much the same as the portal outside school, so it might work.” Quickly, he ran a scanner over it and the data came up on the screens around the lab.

“Now we have to be careful,” said Sonic. “As was evidenced a few weeks ago, stray magic energy from one of the cracks might infect unknowing hosts and make them into power-obsessed lunatics.” Then an alert went off on Cisco’s phone, which he quickly checked.

“Speak of the devil, and she shall appear,” he said.

“What’s that?” asked Shadow.

“That, my friend, was my metahuman social media alert app,” said Cisco, going back to the computer. “I made it so we don’t get caught with our pants down against another metahuman. But it’s weird, now the reports are coming in from Canterlot.”

“What? Why?” asked Sunset. “What are they of?” Then Sonic realized something.

“I think I might know. Get me a visual of where it’s happening, now!” he said. Cisco quickly brought a feed up on the monitors to show Principal Cinch shooting purple fireballs out of her hands at people near Canterlot High, walking towards the doors.

“Principal Cinch? I thought she was in an asylum,” said Twilight.

“So did I,” said Silver. “She must’ve escaped.”

“Ugh, why does that loathsome witch always butt in with matters of magic?” asked Rarity. Then Rainbow snapped her fingers.

“The Witch,” she said. “Okay, no arguing. That’s her name now. End of discussion.”

“Okay, look, sweetheart, you’re obviously new here, so I’m gonna let you in on a little something,” said Cisco. “That whole ‘naming the bad guys’ thing? That’s my jive. But y’know what? Imma let you have that one, cause I actually kinda like it.”

“Can we focus please, people?” said Sonic. “Cinch is right outside CHS, and she’s probably going to attack the principal, so we need to get there right now and stop her.”

“Taking down a magically powered lunatic?” asked Wally, pulling his mask back on. “That sounds fun.”

“Oh, it will be,” said Shadow.

“Cisco, give us a breach,” said Sonic. Cisco quickly put his glasses back on and generated a breach to outside the school. “Team Sonic, let’s go for a run.” Then he shot through the breach.

“Does he do that often?” asked Cisco.

The rest of the gang sighed. “Too often,” they said. But then they followed him through anyway and ended up right in front of the school, along with Barry and Wally.

“Guys, we’ll go in first and try to distract her,” said Sonic. “Once that’s done, Barry and Wally will zip in and take her down.”

“Alright, let’s do it,” said Sunset, as the girls all summoned their suits from their geode pendants and raced into the school with the rest of the team. Once inside, they all hid behind a wall and saw Cinch backing Celestia into a corner.

“Your students are to blame for all of this!” she said, purple flames flowing around her hands. “You did this to me!”

“Abacus, please don’t do this!” said Celestia. Then Sonic zipped up to the balcony above and whistled.

“Yo Witch! Come and get me!” he yelled. Cinch looked at him and blasted at him, but he just shot down to ground level. “Ha-ha! Missed me!”  Cinch growled and fired more flames at him, but she missed every time as Sonic ran between different points so fast, it looked like he was all over the room. Then a rainbow-colored blur shot in and started running around Cinch in circles to confuse her even more.

“How are you doing this?” she asked Sonic at one point.

“Something I picked up from our friend in red,” the Blue Blur replied. “Now on to the matter at hand.” Then the two stopped on the far side of the room. “Cinch!” She looked and aimed her hand at the two, but then she heard a gun cock behind her and looked to see Shadow aiming a large weapon with a wide muzzle at her as he and the others walked out from behind the wall.

“I see so much as a cinder on your hand, you’re getting the B.O.O.T.,” he said.

“The Boot?” she asked. “Is that honestly the best you could come up with?”

“Hey, talk to the Flash, not me,” said Shadow. At that cue, Barry and Wally both shot into the building, masks on and standing fists clenched near Celestia.

“Well, well, well…” said Knuckles. “Speak the devils’ name and they appear.”

“Why are you doing this, Ms. Cinch?” asked Barry. “You had a good life before all this; great job, great students, and you throw all that away because of one contest?”

“Yeah, gotta admit, seems kinda idiotic,” said Wally.

“Hey KF, how bout we don’t heckle the bad guy any more than we need to, okay?” asked Rainbow.

“You honestly think all this was just about the Friendship Games?” asked Cinch. “I found your lab, Sparkle, I saw your notes. Magic has existed in this world for ages. And this school is the source. It cannot go unchecked. But now that I think about it, you’re the one who first brought it to my attention, Twilight.” Then her hand started glowing purple. “Perhaps you should be the first to pay.” Yellow lenses flipped down into Barry’s eyeholes and gave him a readout on him.

“She’s warming up,” he said. Shadow took the safety off the Boot and aimed it at her.

“Dial it back, Abacus,” said Shadow. “I literally just found this thing at the CCPD, so I don’t know how to use it very well. But I do know how to shoot it.” Cinch chuckled.

“Nice try,” she said. “I did my research. That weapon’s only designed to counteract meta-human powers, not magic.” Tails smiled as he unplugged his handheld from the gun’s stock.

“Then I guess it’s gonna suck to be you in a few seconds because I just recalibrated it to work with both,” he said. Shadow smirked and moved his finger for the trigger. “And Shadow’s always had an itchy trigger finger.”

“Hang on, guys,” said Sonic. “I’m feeling generous today. Her vendetta against us started with Midnight Sparkle. How about we let her settle her score with that demon?”

“How? We got rid of Midnight permanently at Camp Everfree,” said Twilight.

“Who said it had to be the real Midnight?” asked Sonic. “I’m talking a battle of minds. Silver, do your thing.”

“You mean…?” the telepath started, and Sonic nodded with a big smile on his face. “Oh, this is gonna be fun.”

“What is?” asked Cinch, getting a bit concerned.

“It’s one of the lesser-used extensions of my powers,” said Silver as he walked up to her, the mark on his right hand glowing cyan, slowly turning red. “When I delve deep into the minds of certain people, I can see their worst fears, mortal dreads and make them fight it for as long as I like. And I can sense it. You don’t fear the unknown of magic as you claim, you fear the one who introduced you to magic. You fear Midnight Sparkle. Have a nice chat!” Then he shot to her and grabbed her face, which caused her eyes to start glowing, along with Silver’s and Sunset’s. Tails quickly slapped a pair of goggles similar to Cisco’s onto her and connected them to his handheld, which projected a hologram of Midnight Sparkle flying around Cinch, and the two were exchanging blasts.

“Is that…?” asked Rarity.

“Yep,” said Sonic. “All this is going on inside Cinch’s mind. And Silver’s controlling Midnight.” Everyone looked closer and saw Midnight was just an incredibly realistic puppet on invisible strings of energy and Silver was hovering above them both, holding a puppetry rig.

“But then, that means Sunset is just…” said Rainbow.

“A spectator, yeah,” said Shadow. “Still, this is gonna be frickin’ awesome.” Then in the hologram, they saw Midnight had Cinch pinned to the wall and had bitten her neck, almost like a vampire, but instead of blood, it looked like Cinch’s magic was going up Midnight’s fangs. Then Sonia saw puncture marks similar to the marks Midnight made form on Cinch’s neck in real life, and blood started leaking out.

“Okay, Silver, I think that’s enough,” she said, but the telepath didn’t hesitate, and all his marks started turning red. “Uh guys, I think we have a problem. Silver’s going nuts.”

“Not good,” said Sonic, seeing Silver’s marks turn red in the hologram too. “Last time we saw him like this, it was the music video contest, and he had just flipped his lid.”

“Well, can we stop him?” asked Barry.

“Maybe, but we’d have to go into Silver’s mind to do that,” said Tails. “And our empath is busy with her mind-link to him.”

“Then I guess you guys are lucky I’m here,” said Cisco as he walked up in his Vibe suit.

“Can you even do this, Cisco?” asked Wally.

Cisco shrugged. “We’re about to find out,” he said and walked up to Silver. He grabbed his arm, and in the hologram, Vibe suddenly appeared. Then he shot a concussive wave up at Silver, who was then knocked away from Cinch in real life and his markings returned to normal. Sunset fell over and the goggles fell off her face as Shadow caught her.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, thanks,” she said. Silver pulled himself up and took a few deep breaths as they saw Cinch on the ground, still hyperventilating and bleeding from her neck.

“I might have gotten a little carried away,” he said simply.

“DOHOI, YA THINK?!” asked Sonic mockingly.

“Wow, that kinda took a 180,” said Silver. “Uh, you good?” Knuckles sniffed.

“Lot of adrenaline in her blood,” he said. “I can smell it.”

“You can _smell_ adrenaline?” asked Twilight.

“Yeah, one of the added benefits of being highly evolved,” said the echidna.

“We should probably take her to a hospital,” said Barry.

“Screw that,” said Shadow. “Throw her in the meta-human wing at Iron Heights and get her a shrink.”

“Shadow’s right,” said Sonic. “If we don’t keep her in a power-dampening environment, she’ll come back with even more of a vengeance.”

“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that, Sonic,” said Silver, walking closer to her. “She’s not moving.”

“Is she-?” asked Sunset. Sonic zipped up and felt specific areas on her body. He got curious and pulled her hair a bit, but still nothing.

“No, she’s breathing,” he said. “Heartbeat’s steady, if a bit low. But she isn’t responding to anything, not even that hair-pull.” Tails moved up and placed electrodes on her forehead. He checked his handheld and was surprised.

“This is preposterous. Literally, none of her brainwaves are registering,” he said. “Silver, I think you might’ve brain-blasted her by accident.”

“Brain-blast?” asked Rainbow.

“Another extension of my powers,” said Silver. “One I swore never to use. I can use my powers to overpower a person mentally, blocking specific memories, or in less controlled uses, I can render my enemies into catatonic states.”

“Catatonic?” asked Fluttershy. “Y-you mean…?”

“Yep. I just put Cinch into a coma,” said Silver.

“Well, silver lining; we don’t have to worry about her breaking out of jail anytime soon,” said Knuckles. “Least not until she wakes up. Let’s just get her to Iron Heights just to be safe.”

“Can do,” said Cisco as he picked up Cinch. Then he heard something on his communicator and moved to reply. “Yeah? Wait, what? You’re kidding. Y’know what, why am I even surprised?”

“What’s going on?” asked Rainbow.

“It’s Caitlin. It’s about the cracks,” said Cisco. Soon enough, Cinch had been transported to Iron Heights Prison and everyone met back up at the lab.

“As it turns out, just like with the breaches, there aren’t just the four Twilight’s doppelganger told you about,” said Caitlin. “There’s 53 of them, scattered across your city.”

“All connected to different areas of Equestria, no doubt,” said Sonic. “We’re gonna have to work overtime to close them.”

“I’ll fish the schematics of Harry’s breach implosion reactors out of the lab archives, see if that helps,” said Cisco.

“And if anything else insane happens in Canterlot, we’ll let you guys know and you can back us up,” said Sonic, shaking Barry’s hand. “Good seeing you again, Scarlet Speedster.”

“Same goes to you, Blue Blur,” said Barry. At that, Sonic chuckled.

“Seriously, what is it with people with these alliterative nicknames?” he asked. Then he saw a silver ring on Iris’ finger. “He-he-hey! Finally made it, eh bud? Congrats.”

“Huh?” asked Barry. Then he got it. “Oh. Oh, no. We’re not married yet, it’s gonna be in a few months. You guys can come if you want.”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” said Sonic. “See ya then. We’re gonna head home, see how things are cleaning up.” Soon enough, Shadow had warped the team back to Canterlot High and they were proud to still be in one piece. But Silver was still a bit shaken up.


	4. School of Rock

After Cinch’s attack on the school, the teachers took their students to the museum for the day where Pinkie’s sister deadpan Maud was giving a lecture about geology and such. A lecture which, to no stretch of the imagination was boring Sonic and the team out of their collective minds.

“Welcome to Rock Talks with Maud,” she said as per usual. “Are you ready for rocks?”

“Woo!” some guy said.

“If one hits me in the face and puts me into a coma, yes,” said Knuckles, lying down on a bench nearby.

“Me too,” continued Maud. “Me, too. I'm thrilled that you are here at the Canterlot Natural History Museum to learn about rocks, minerals, fossils, and, last, but not least…” At this point, Maud was just droning on, sending Sonic and most of the guys to sleep where they were hanging out. Shadow managed to stay up long enough to watch Silver hover near Rarity and begin to say something but then float away.

At one incredibly boring joke, Pinkie just shot up and said “Good one, Maud!” which startled Sonic awake.

“Who-what-where-huh?” he said. “Oh man, we’re still here?” Maud just kept droning, and Sonic was just about to go back to sleep when he heard Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie whispering. He strained himself to listen over Maud and made it out.

“Ready for what we planned with Maud?” said Pinkie.

“Mhm,” said Twilight.

“Let’s do it,” said Rarity and Pinkie dragged Twilight off.

“I’m almost scared to say this, but would you mind explaining what that was about?” asked Sonic.

“You’ll see,” said Rarity and giggled.

“That’s never a good sign,” thought Sonic. Then Rarity used her powers to summon a few gem shields into the air and formed them into crystalline shapes near Maud. Sonic was actually intrigued as he watched them spin around in midair. Then they moved up to the top of the volcano which then exploded at the top. Sonic and Shadow looked at each other.

“Pinkie.” their expressions simply said. Either way, it certainly got the attention of the crowd. Then Twilight used her telekinesis to levitate the dinosaur bones nearby and make the people even more amazed. After that, the students all applauded and one kid ran up.

“As a proud member of the Maud Squad…” she said.

“She has a fan club?” Sonic whispered to Shadow.

“Apparently,” he said.

“I just wanted to ask, will you sign my geology book?” asked the kid. Maud produced a pen and did so. Then Pinkie zipped up and grabbed her friends in a headlock.

“Look at Maud! She’s ecstatic!” she said.

“You can tell?” asked Sonic.

“You can’t?” asked Pinkie.

“You’re not normal?” asked Shadow sarcastically. He and Sonic shared a quick Brofist before Shadow looked down the hall to see Silver hovering away.

“Cmon,” he said and he raced off, Sonic on his tail. They stopped at the door and saw Silver with a small silver locket. Shadow looked carefully over his shoulder from his position and saw it was a picture of his old friend Blaze.

“I’m sorry Blaze,” said Silver. “But I can’t keep living in the past. I know we were never really a thing, but I need to move on. With her. See ya round.” The two in the door zipped back out to the others and explained.

“Who’s her?” asked Knuckles.

“Not sure,” said Shadow. “We didn’t want to risk getting caught. We’ll have to ask him about it later.”


	5. Love is the Rarest Gem

It had been a while since the team’s admittedly boring museum trip, and Silver was still acting weird about something. Sonic knew it wasn’t about brain-blasting Cinch; he’d broken that self-promise more than once before and it never bugged him for more than a week, so he called for the guys to meet at the Diner where Pinkie was planning on working that summer. Judging from both the décor and the music in the jukebox, it looked almost like it never left the 1950s, and Sonic was more than happy with that since he knew it would mean the place would have his favorite on the menu.

“What’ll it be, folks?” asked the waitress.

“I’ll have two chili dogs and an iced lemonade,” he said, smiling.

“Can do,” she said. “And how about you, Mr. Dark and Mysterious?”

“Chocolate shake,” said Shadow.

“Alright, and the rest of you?” asked the waitress.

“I think I’ll just have a salad and some water,” said Sonia.

“One strawberry milkshake, please,” said Tails. “And how ‘bout a plate of fries?”

“Just give me a club sandwich and a grape soda,” said Knuckles.

“I’ll have the bacon-burger, medium rare, and a diet Coke,” said Manic. “How ‘bout you, Silver?”

“I’m not really hungry,” he said in a weird tone. Everyone looked at him weirdly and the waitress leaned down to Sonic.

“Is he okay?” she asked.

“He’s fine,” said Shadow promptly. “He’s just dealing with a lot. Got a big project for his psychology class coming up.” That prompted a weird look from Silver as he turned to face Shadow.

“How’d you know I was taking psychology?” he asked.

“I have my ways,” said Shadow, and he turned back to the waitress. “Anyway yeah, I think that’ll do it.”

“Alright, comin’ right up,” said the waitress and she skated away. After a while, the guys were eating, and Sonic decided to get to the meat of the matter.

“Okay Silver, let’s get down to brass tacks,” he said. “What is going on with you?”

“What are you talking about?” asked Silver.

“Don’t lie, dude,” said Manic, spinning his drumsticks with his fingers. “You’ve been acting like this since Cinch.”

“Manic, I promised myself I’d never brain-blast another person,” said Silver.

“When, in the future?” asked Sonic. “It doesn’t even matter, because I know you’ve broken that promise like a thousand times over before Cinch.”

“So what if I have? I haven’t done it for a while, so…” said Silver.

“Silver, don’t kid yourself,” said Knuckles. “You brain-blasted Eggman before we got stranded here.”

“That was ages ago, and for all we know, he’s recovered,” said Silver. “Ergo-” Manic shut him up by closing his mouth with his drumstick.

“Dude. I think I see what’s goin’ on with you,” he said. “It’s the girl.” The others looked around.

“Girl?” asked Sonic. Silver sighed and gave in.

“Yeah, girl,” he said. “Rarity.” Everyone stopped and stared at him. Then a record scratch echoed around the place. They looked over at the jukebox and saw the needle had gotten stuck and scratched back to its resting spot. A waitress skated over and looked into it.

“Ah nuts,” she said. “Sorry folks. Just needs a little attention. Till then, we’ll use the speakers.” Then she skated back. “Dang it Mike, you’re killin’ me. I told you we should’ve replaced this thing ages ago.” Then the team looked back at Silver.

“Sheesh,” said Tails. “Talk about great timing.”

“Seriously. But really dude, Rarity?” asked Sonic.

“Yeah, I know she’s in another dimension and probably won’t even recognize me, but Rarity kinda reminds me of Blaze,” said Silver. Knuckles just burst out laughing.

“That doesn’t even make any sense!” he said. “They look nothing alike!”

“Actually…” said Tails, showing his handheld to the others. On one side was a picture of Rarity, and on the other side was a picture of what Blaze might look like in this universe, and she and Rarity had extremely similar stats and appearances; face-and-eye-shapes, hair color and volume, height and weight, even choice of clothing. The guys were actually pretty surprised.

“Well, ride me sidesaddle, what do you know?” said Knuckles.

“I know, right?” asked Shadow. “What are the odds?”

“Where’d you get all these stats?” asked Silver.

“I’ve got all your stats,” said Tails. “As for how I got them, you don’t wanna know.”

“So you’re hung up on Rarity because she reminds you of your not-exactly-girlfriend formally from your time?” asked Sonic. “Why?”

“Well, I dunno,” said Silver. “I never really got the chance to really prove I liked Blaze that much because, y’know… apocalypse.”

“Yeah, I get that,” said Sonic. “And since Rarity reminds you of her so much, you feel like you’re making up for lost time, right?”

“Basically, but it’s kinda the same story as it was with Blaze,” said Silver. “Y’know that movie ‘Elf’?”

“You mean that cheesy Christmas special with Will Ferrell?” asked Sonic.

“Yeah, specifically that one scene in the trailer where he’s talking to that girl,” said Silver. “Y’know where he says ‘I think you’re beautiful and my tongue swells up when I’m around you’? Yeah, that’s basically me around Rarity.”

“Jesus Christ,” said Sonia, pinching the bridge of her nose. “And here I thought Dingo was the lovestruck pup.”

“Hey, c’mon sis,” said Manic. “Ya gotta give that guy some credit. He and Sleet served their roles at the end of the war.”

“The part where we used them as spies and blew Robotropolis to rubble?” asked Sonic.

“Bingo,” said his brother. “But yeah, that lovestruck thing; I gotta agree with you on that.”

“Guys, C'mon,” said Silver. “Trying to figure out how to get a girl to like me here. Cut me some slack, will ya?”

“Well, what’s the holdup? Why not just ask her out on a date or something?” asked Knuckles.

“Couple things,” said Silver. “A; I don’t have a car. B; I have no idea where to take her. And C, and this one is actually relevant here as well; I’m broke.”

“What?” asked Sonia.

“Yeah so… someone else is gonna have to pay for lunch,” said Silver, glancing around.

“Well okay, all of those are easily rectified,” said Sonic. “We just need to find out what she’s into, and somewhere to get you enough money to pay for it and the car.”

“I heard she’s been wanting to try that new Italian place across town,” said Sonia. Sonic snapped his fingers on both hands and clapped them together, smirking.

“Boom! One down,” he said.

“Yeah, out of three, all of which are interlinked,” said Silver. Then an announcement came in over the speakers in the diner over the radio.

“And if you’ve been wondering about the ruckus outside city hall lately, it’s because MMA professional fighter Iron Will is in town today for a special event,” said the DJ. “If anyone can beat him in a three-round fight, they get twenty thousand dollars in cold hard cash. All participants are welcome. And now, back to the classics, here’s Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra with his hit song, ‘Blue Moon’.” As the song played, the team looked between themselves and Sonic smiled.

“The multiverse is just giving us the easiest time ever right now,” he said. “Just go take down that Iron Will guy and you’re basically set.”

“Yeah, one problem,” said Silver. “I stink at hand-to-hand combat. I rely on my powers too much, and if I use them, our cover to the outside world is blown.”

“Hey, no worries,” said Knuckles. “I’ll win it for you. I’ve been training in martial arts since I was born. I can take him.”

“Dude, you’d do that for me?” asked Silver.

“You’re a part of Team Sonic, man,” said the Blue Blur. “We’d die for you.”

“Thanks, guys,” said Silver. “This really helps.”

“Hey, no prob Silv,” said Manic. “Now, let’s go win you that money!” With that, Sonic promptly slapped some cash on the table and they all ran out to the Underground’s new band van, which was really just a modified short school bus, which Tails quickly floored toward City Hall. Once there, they saw a large fighting ring with a jacked guy with deep blue skin, black shorts and shoes, a red necktie and a gold nose-ring.

“You sure about this, Knuckles?” asked Manic. “This dude looks like he could give you a run fer your money.”

“Pfft. Please,” scoffed Knuckles confidently, doing a few arm-circles. “Compared to me, he’s a lightweight wrestler. He’ll be down and out within the first ten seconds.”

“We’ll see about that,” said the guy at the desk. “But just to be safe, you might wanna sign this life insurance waver.”

“Not gonna need it, but just to make you guys happy, I’ll sign it anyway,” said Knuckles, scribbling his name on the line.

“Now, we just need your height and weight,” said the guy, leading Knuckles to a measuring tape and scale. Knuckles took off his shoes and stood on both, showing his weight was 145 lbs., and his height was 6-foot-1. Then he put his shoes back on and walked into the ring.

“Just to make it more interesting,” said Manic, with a smirk developing on his face. Then he snagged a mic. “Hey! Yo! Over here! Takin’ all bets! I’m givin’ nine-to-two on Knuckles; the Ragin’ Echidna, the Great Red Hope! Cmon baby!” Suddenly people were lining up to hand him cash, betting on either one of the two fighters.

“You are one devious bastard, Manic,” said Tails.

“That’s what it says on my board’s vanity plate, buddy,” said Manic, counting up the cash.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” said the referee standing on the edge of the ring with a briefcase. “Welcome to today’s main event. In this corner, standing 5-11 and weighing in at 137 pounds, our champion, Iron Will!” The man stuck his hands up in the air, making everyone cheer and chant for him. “And in this corner, standing 6-1 and weighing in at 145 pounds, his challenger from Canterlot High, Knuckles!” Other people nearby started cheering for the echidna and he growled, ready to fight.

“Hang on, I almost forgot something,” he said, pulling his goggles off his head. “Hold my stuff.” Then he threw his shirt and goggles at Sonic, revealing huge muscles that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger feel self-conscious. “You sure you want a piece of this?” he asked, wiggling his pecs in intimidation.

“Bring it on, kid!” growled Iron Will.

“Hey kid, you signed the waiver, right?” asked the announcer.

“Yeah, but did he sign his?” smirked Knuckles pulling on his gloves. Iron Will growled even louder, obviously angry.

“Just for that little crack, punk, Iron Will’s gonna make you beg for mercy!” he said.

“Someone’s gonna be begging in the next few seconds, but it sure as hell isn’t gonna be me,” said Knuckles, cracking his spiked name-sakes.

“Fighters ready!” yelled the referee. “And… FIGHT!” Iron Will charged up to Knuckles with a straight jab, but Knuckles caught it and delivered his own strong punch straight into the champ’s crotch, sending him to the floor, squealing in pain.

“Oh-ho-ho-ho!” he sobbed. “You destroyed half of my enormous dick!”

Knuckles just gave a snicker of doubt as he let go of his arm. “Yeah, okay. Whatever,” he said. “Uh, I think I win, right?”

“Uh…” said the ref, looking at Iron Will, getting up while still crumpled, holding his crotch in pain. “I guess so. And our winner is… KNUCKLES!” The audience cheered insanely loud as Knuckles left the ring and got his shirt back.

“And that’s my cue to leave,” said Iron Will, jogging away as best he could. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow-Bad day to wear tight shorts!” Knuckles and the others just laughed at his misfortune as they left for the bus. Later on, they were in town at a car dealership looking for a ride for Silver.

“Hmm…” he said, inspecting the lot. “None of these are really singing to me.” Then he remembered something. “Oh wait! Pfft! Doy! I do have a car.” Then he whipped out a futuristic key, pressed a button, and a white futuristic Audi flew in on hover-engines installed in the wheels which flipped down as it landed, making the guys whoop and whistle at the awesomeness.

“How long have you had this thing?” asked Sonic.

“Just got it in my time before we came here,” said Silver. “Had to bring it through a breach, so if I’m right, Cisco should be having a bit of a headache right now.”

“How did you forget having something this kick-ass?” asked Manic. “I mean, for god’s sake, not saying I will, but if I wanted to, I would totally boost this thing.”

“Can’t,” said Silver. “DNA coded handle on the driver door. Go ahead, try it.” Manic didn’t need to be told twice as he zipped around to the driver door and touched the handle, sending an electric shock through his body, sending him flying into a pole. Silver couldn’t help but laugh as he saw Manic twitching from the voltage.

“Dude! That was my brother!” said Sonic. “Don’t laugh, you ass!”

“Sorry, sorry,” said Silver, as he calmed down and Sonia helped Manic up. “It’s just that this happens to me so freakin’ much, it’s basically just laughter material now.”

“So… do you have a suit?” asked Shadow.

“Uh hello? Instant clothing generation tech?” asked Silver rhetorically, pressing a button on his wristwatch, causing his current clothes to degenerate and a futuristic white tux along with a black fogcoat to appear on him in their place.

“Hot damn, dude,” said Sonic. “Guess you’re ready.”

“Not quite,” said Silver as he switched back to his usual outfit. “I still have the whole ‘talking to girls’ problem.”

“You’re talking to me just fine,” said Sonia.

“Yeah, but you’re such a badass that you’re basically a guy, so it doesn’t count,” said Silver, adjusting his epaulets.

“Hey, y’know what?!” she said angrily.

“Relax sis, it was a compliment,” said Sonic. “I think. Also, what about the girls? Rarity is with them basically daily, so doesn’t that help?”

“Not as much as you’d think,” said Silver. “But hey, ‘Nothing to fear but fear itself’, am I right?”

“Not sure that quote works there,” said Knuckles.

“Shut up,” said Silver as he pulled out his cell phone. “I’m trying to call her.” The line rang for a second before someone picked up.

“Hello?” asked Rarity on the other end.

“Hey Rarity, it’s Silver,” he said. “So I heard you’ve been wanting to check out that new Italian place on the east side. I assume that’s true?”

“Indeed it is,” said Rarity. “Why?”

“Oh, no major reason, but I gotta tell ya, I _love_ Italian. Hell, my middle name is literally Venice,” said Silver. “So, I was thinking we could, y’know, head over there together sometime, get dinner, I dunno, what do you think?”

“I _think_ it sounds like you’re asking me out on a date, which I accept,” said Rarity.

“W- Wait, seriously? Just like that?” asked Silver.

“Just like that, yes,” she replied. “Why? You’re not going to back out, are you?”

“What? No! God no, I mean I called you, didn’t I? Okay uh, how does tonight sound?” he asked. “Pick you up at 6:00?”

“I’ll have to check my schedule, see if I’m free then,” said Rarity.

“Take your time, I’m hourly,” said Silver and the two laughed a bit. “I’m sorry, I got that from ‘Archer’, it’s just such a good show. Also, Shadow binge-watches it on Netflix a lot.”

“Hey, that show actually holds some water when it comes to all the espionage things,” said Shadow. “Like the honeypot? That is actually a real thing.”

“Shadow, shut up,” said Silver. “So, what’s the verdict on the schedule?”

“Thankfully, I’m free all night tonight, so six sounds lovely, darling,” said Rarity. “See you then.”

“Cool. See ya tonight, and I hope you dress formally. Bye,” said Silver as he hung up. “Yes!”

“Nice work, man,” said Knuckles. “Way to grow a pair.”

“Shut up, I gotta go get ready,” said Silver, jumping into his car and racing off, leaving the others in the dust.

“Is it just me or is he being a massive dick right now?” asked Manic.

“Yep,” said all the others.

Sonic sighed. “Great,” he said. “Now we’ve gotta walk all the way back to our apartment.”

“Eh, could be worse,” said Manic as they started walking. “At least one of us isn’t getting stabbed by some random dude on the street.” Then out of nowhere, it started raining. “See? It’s the exact opposite.” Then a guy ran up with a knife, stabbed Manic in the arm and ran off. “OW! Dear God, it happened anyway!”

“Well, that’s what you get for tempting fate,” said Sonic. “Now cmon, let’s go.” That evening at six on the dot, Silver coasted up to Rarity’s house in his car leaving his coat in the seat and walking up to the door. Slowly, he took a deep breath to steal his nerves and knocked three times. When she opened the door, Silver was starstruck at the shining blue dress and heels she was wearing.

“Wh-Whoa,” he said blushing. “You look great.”

“Why thank you, darling,” she replied, turning a bit pink herself. “You look rather dapper yourself.”

“Well, our chariot awaits,” said Silver, pressing a button on the key, opening the passenger-side door and revving the engine up. “Shall we?” Rarity was honestly awestruck by the vehicle, but tried to look dignified.

“Of course,” she said. “Let’s.” Silver then led her to the car and let her get in before he joined her. “Where did you get this car? It’s amazing.”

“They’re not gonna make these bad boys on Mobius for another two hundred years,” he smirked and shifted the car into gear, racing away into town. Soon enough, they arrived at the restaurant and walked up to the maître’d’s desk.

“Good evening,” he said. “Uh, how many tonight?”

“Just two,” said Silver.

“Very well then,” said the maître’d. “Right this way.” The two were then led to a spot in the middle of the room to a vacant table. And one of the tables right next to it, was someone Silver wasn’t expecting to see.

“Oliver?” he asked. And indeed, sitting there at another table was Oliver Queen himself.

“Silver, hey,” he said getting up and shaking his hand. “Been a while.”

“Yeah, good to see you man,” said Silver as he pulled out a chair for Rarity. “I heard you got voted mayor. Congrats.”

“Well, not really much of a promotion seeing as how Ray took over Queen Consolidated, but thanks all the same,” said Oliver. Then Silver saw a young woman with blonde hair and glasses at Oliver’s table. He quickly read Oliver’s mind to figure out who she was.

“I take it you’re Felicity Smoak?” he asked. She looked quickly up and got out of her seat and walked over.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s me,” she said. “How’d you know?”

“Oh, Oliver mentioned you last time we met,” he said, sparking a strange look in the archer’s eye. “Kidding. I read your mind.”

“Still getting used to that,” said Oliver as he and Felicity sat back down.

“Well, I suppose that could easily be rectified,” said Rarity. “Perhaps we could train together at your hideout.” That statement made Felicity’s face instantly lose color.

“You mean his office, right? I mean what else would you mean?” she said awkwardly and started stuttering, making the other three laugh a bit.

“Is she always like this?” asked Rarity.

“Basically,” said Oliver.

“Felicity, relax,” said Silver. “We know all about Ollie’s ‘after-dark habits’. Comprende?”

“You mean you know about the-?” she said, miming a bow and arrow.

“Mm-hmm,” said Rarity.

“Whew,” she said relieved. “Man, you are a really inclusive club now, aren’t you, Oliver? First Dig, then me, now these two?”

“And our friends,” added Silver.

“Exactly- Wait, what?” asked Felicity.

“Long story, we’ll explain later,” said Silver. “Meantime, let’s just get on with dinner, kay?” And that’s exactly what they did, and Rarity was extremely charmed by Silver’s attitude. Later that night, the waitress came back to find their plates spotless.

“I take it you enjoyed your meal?” she asked.

“So much,” said Silver.

“Alright, would you like dessert?” she asked.

“Mm, yes I think so,” said Rarity. Then Silver saw something outside; something that looked like a man with a DP-12 shotgun.

“Get down!” he yelled and threw the table over just as the shotgun rang out and put a sizable hole in the window, with a piece of glass just barely scraping Rarity’s arm.

“AH!” she yelled in pain.

“Hang on Rarity, I gotcha!” said Silver. Then the gunner shot again, and Silver quickly used his powers to throw the slug back into the gun as he cocked it, causing the shells inside to detonate the gun in his hands, sending him to the ground, clutching his hands in pain. Then the waitress stood up next to him, shocked.

“Uh yeah no,” he said simply. “I think we’ll take the check.” Then he saw Rarity groaning in pain at her shoulder. “Oh, and also maybe some bandages.”

“I’ll have those right out, sir,” said the waitress as she left. Then they heard sirens in the distance.

“Cops are on the way,” said Silver.

“Not surprising, given the shotgun-totting wacko on the road,” said Oliver. “I suggest we just leave some money here to cover both our tabs and get out of here. I’m already facing indictment as-is. If news of this gets out, I’m dead in the water.”

“Yeah, plus I really don’t wanna have to explain how I just returned fire that accurately without a gun,” said Silver. Quickly, Oliver wrote a check for enough to cover both their meals and all four ran out the back door, stopping an alley to catch their breath.

“This is why I usually have Diggle watching my back,” said Oliver.

“Who needs a war-vet when you’ve got a telekinetic?” asked Silver as his powers flowed over Rarity’s arm, making her shiver.

“It’s cold,” she said.

“Trust me, it’ll feel better in a second,” said Silver as her wound sealed like it was never even there.

“Oh. Well, thank you,” said Rarity, getting up.

“Pleasure,” said Silver. “Now they’ll be locking this place down, so I suggest we all get to our cars and get the hell outta here A.S.A.G.D.M.F.P.”

“I second that,” said Felicity. Quickly, they all ran for their cars and drove away. While on the way back to Rarity’s house, Silver had a chance to talk to her.

“So listen, I know our first date didn’t, y’know, shatter any records, but if you’re open to it, we could do this again, Whaddaya think?” he asked.

“Are you kidding? Tonight was wonderful,” said Rarity. “We’re definitely doing this again.”

“Wait, seriously?” asked Silver. “When?”

“I don’t know, two weeks?” she asked. “We can catch a movie.”

“Oh yeah, that sounds good,” said Silver. “You into Dennis Quaid?”

“Well, I suppose,” she said.

“Cool,” said Silver. “So how about I rent ‘The Big Easy’ and watch it at your place?”

“That sounds lovely, Silver,” said Rarity as they pulled up at her house and she moved to get out. “See you back at school.” Then she stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot.” Then she kissed Silver on the cheek and then left him blushing in the car for a good two minutes. When he got back to the team’s new house in the city suburbs, he walked through the living room to see the others gathered together at the TV.

“Dude, just saw the news,” said Sonic. “Nice counter.”

“What happened after?” asked Tails.

“Long story,” said Silver. “And if you’ll excuse me, I kinda want to go to bed right now, so…” And then he phased up through the ceiling to his room and faceplanted on his bed. Sonic looked around and the others had all reached a silent consensus.

“It went perfectly,” Sonic voiced.

“Totally,” said Manic.


	6. Queen of Clubs

After Silver’s date, he and Rarity had really hit it off and formed a bond, as they discussed with Sonic and Rainbow in the hall.

“Look man, I’m telling you, you and RD don’t need to be jealous,” said Silver. “We’re just more compatible.”

“Oh yeah, talk about compatibility to a couple of guys with exactly the same powers!” said Sonic. Then out of nowhere, Applejack and Knuckles walked up with a pig on a leash. The pig stretched and accidentally collapsed on the floor, prompting the two insanely strong team-members to share a chuckle. Rarity quickly covered her nose upon seeing it.

“Whyever do you have that swine accompanying you to school, Applejack?” she asked.

“Hey-hey-hey, not cool,” said Knuckles. “Grundy here isn’t a swine; he’s a full-blown miniature pig.”

“My question still stands,” said Rarity.

“Yeah, y’know I’m kinda curious about that myself,” said Sonic.

“It’s Photo Day for all the clubs, and it’s a Young Farmers’ Club tradition to have yer critter in the yearbook picture,” said Applejack, scratching Grundy’s chin.

“There’s a Young Farmers’ Club here?” asked Silver.

“Are you kidding? There’s every kind of club,” said Knuckles.

“Yeah well, you’re lucky you’re only in _one_ club,” said Rainbow. “I’m in _five_ this year. So busy.”

“And here we go…” said Silver, having seen Applejack’s eyes pop.

“Well, Young Farmers is only one of the _six_ clubs I’m in,” said Applejack proudly.

“Called it,” said Silver, smirking at a dumbstruck Rainbow Dash.

She stuttered for a second before she said, “I meant five _sports_ clubs.”

“Sweeties, darlings, lovelies, it’s not a competition,” said Rarity. But that didn’t stop Rainbow and Applejack to run off in different directions.

“Did you honestly think that would work?” asked Sonic.

“Not really, but I suppose it was worth a try,” replied Rarity.

“Either way, you guys wanna bet on who’s gonna win?” asked Silver.

“Ten bucks says Rainbow smokes AJ,” said Sonic.

“I’ll see that and raise ya twenty that AJ beats her into the dirt,” said Knuckles.

“You’re on,” said Sonic, shaking his hand. “Silver, you want in?”

“Sure,” he smirked. “I’ll bet fifty that they both miss a single club in this whole building.”

“Ohhhh-ho-ho-ho, it. Is. On,” said Sonic, as all three shook hands. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were rocketing around the school, essentially photobombing as many club pictures as possible. Later that day, the whole team met in the cafeteria with the first draft of their yearbooks, just in time to see Rainbow Dash and Applejack walk over, completely exhausted.

“Wow. You guys okay?” asked Tails. To answer, the two of them quickly flipped through all the club pages at lightning speed and counted it up.

“Well, the scores are in, and it’s a darn-tootin’ tie!” said Applejack before falling face-first onto her book.

“You have **got** to be kidding me,” said Rainbow, slamming her book closed. “After all that?”

“At least between the two of us, we joined every single club at CHS,” said Applejack.

“Whoa. What are the odds?” asked Sonic over near the column with Knuckles and Silver.

“Probably less than the odds of them both missing one club,” said Knuckles. “Sorry Silver, looks like we all lose.”

“Well, you say that…” said Silver and Rarity cleared her throat at hearing that.

“Not _all_ the clubs,” she said, turning to a certain page in her book. The guys moved over and saw the one club the two missed; Rarity’s fashion club.

“How did we miss that one?” asked Rainbow, actually confused.

“Uh-uh-uh, darlings,” said Rarity. “It’s very exclusive.”

“Wait a second,” said Knuckles, looking at the picture of Rarity leaning on something. “Is that… Grundy?!” And it was, but he was all gussied up with jewelry and make-up.

“Oh well, of course,” said Rarity, pulling him up to sit next to her. “You can’t expect me to be the president _and_ the vice-president.” Grundy oinked happily as everyone let their jaws drop. Except for Silver; he just smirked.

“And I believe you gentlemen each owe me fifty bucks,” he said, holding out his hand. The two of them grumbled as they fished out their money and gave it to him.

“Remind me never to gamble with you again,” said Sonic.

“Well, there goes my plan for our weekend,” said Shadow.

“Wh- Why? What’s your plan?” asked Sunset.

“Well…” said Shadow, poking at his bowl of rice. “I’m lead to believe there’s an entire city somewhere out west, designed specifically to help people like you guys make back your money. As well as possibly lose it and everything else, wake up with a killer hangover, and if you’re lucky, some sort of degrading nickname and forced responsibility.” Then Manic put it together in his head and smiled broadly.

“Is it me or was that just Shadow’s way of saying ‘VEGAS, BABY!’?” he asked.

“Holy shit, dude, is that what you’re saying?” asked Silver, excited.

“I’ve never been to Vegas,” said Rainbow, turning to Sonic. “Have you?”

“Basically,” he said. “There’s this huge zone of Mobius; nighttime all the time, and gambling as far as the eye can see. But I’ve never been to Vegas Proper either.”

“Who knows? Could be kickass,” said Knuckles.

“Well okay, let’s hit Vegas this weekend,” said Twilight. Shadow just chuckled.

“Oh, no-no-no-no,” he said. “I’m not talking about Vegas. I mean somewhere further to the west.”

“Well, where is it?” asked Sonic. Shadow’s eyes lit up as he looked up.

“Japan,” he said simply.


	7. Kakegurui

That weekend, the team was indeed in Japan, but not where they were expecting to be.

“A school,” said Sonic. “You promise us a Japanese city full of gambling, and you give us… a school.” And indeed, the team was outside an enormous prep school-like building, fenced off with a high stone and iron wall. Sonic sighed and turned to his rival. “Shadow, have I ever told you that I hate you?”

“More than enough, Sonic, but not to worry,” said Shadow. “Because let me inform you that this is no ordinary school. This is Hyakkao Private Academy.” At the mention of its name, the front gates swung open and the team walked up to the main doors. “Before we go in, you should all take these pills.” He then passed around a container of small green pills.

“What are they?” asked Rarity.

“Ingestible translators,” said Sonic. “They hook to your larynx and allow you to speak, read and understand literally any language spoken on the face of the planet, including Japanese.” The team quickly decided to take the pills and felt a strange tingling in their throats.

“So did it work?” asked Twilight.

“To literally everyone besides us? Yes,” said Knuckles. “Now, to us, it seems like anyone speaking Japanese will actually be speaking English.”

“Now for the explanation of this school,” said Shadow as he put his hands on the door. “It houses the most wealthy and privileged students in all of Japan. Plenty of future leaders and pros live among the privileged student body.” Then he opened the doors to reveal the entrance hall set up almost like a professional Vegas strip casino and the team walked in, students greeting Shadow as they walked in. “Here, the hierarchy is determined by how much cash you have, and how high you like the stakes.”

“Wait, doesn’t anyone here care about grades here?” asked Twilight.

“Hardly,” said Shadow. “Classes are still held, but they are interrupted on a whim, whenever someone wants to play. There’s only one rule to this school; you gamble, or you end up little more than house pets, or at the very worst, get thrown out on your ass.” As if to emphasize his point, Shadow directed the team’s attention to a young man benched down under a young woman, as if acting as a foot-rest, with a metal tag looped around his neck. The text on it read “Bottom-feeder, rank #0023 Fido” which instantly made Rarity feel uneasy.

“Well, what about us?” she asked.

“We’re just visiting, so we don’t have to worry about getting kicked out,” said Shadow. “The pet status though? Once you’re down there, it’s practically impossible to claw your way back to the top. In order to do that, you have to pay off your debt, or you’ll be stuck at the bottom of the food chain forever. And these guys are basically compulsive gamblers, so the debts are usually insanely high.”

“Jeez, way to lay it on thick,” said Sonic, pulling his head back. “Wait, how do you know so much about this place?”

“I may or may not have snuck out here for a week the other month,” he said. “I’ve gained quite the rep.” Then he saw a familiar pale young girl with long black hair and brown eyes in the usual academy uniform with a silver ring around her left thumb. “But not as good as her’s. Hey Yumeko! Over here!” The girl looked over and smirked upon seeing Shadow and walked over.

“Shadow-kun,” she said. “Good to see you again. It’s been too long.”

“Yeah, sorry I wasn’t back sooner,” he said. “But I just had to rope the rest of my friends into coming here. Didn’t take much, we were all bored out of our minds back at our school. Think we can get in on some of the action around here?”

“Sure,” said Yumeko, with a strange look in her eye. Twilight could swear her eyes were turning red, and she passed on the word to her friends. Then Yumeko’s eyes locked onto Caliburn. Sonic noticed and angled his handle away from her.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said. “The day I bet Caliburn is the day I lose my mind.”

“Careful what you wish for,” said a voice behind him as a revolver was cocked behind his head. He glanced in a mirror nearby to see a pale girl with short black hair, a medical bandage over her left eye, the other of which was apparently yellow-green, and her pupil was insanely small, not to mention she had an even crazier look in her eye than Yumeko. “If you’re not careful, you can lose your mind in here.”

“And I take it you’re a perfect example of that,” said Sonic.

“Ignore Midari,” said Yumeko, lowering the revolver and leading the others away. “She only gambles here for the risk of being hurt.”

“Speakin’ of which, what was with the patch?” asked Applejack.

“Apparently, she stabbed it out to pay off her debt to the Student Council President,” said Shadow.

“Sheesh,” said Sunset. “I know you said the stakes were always high at this place, but that just seems insane.”

“That’s nothing compared to one of her first achievements,” said a young man nearby. He had brown hair and eyes, and he seemed to be a bit nervous around Yumeko for some reason.

“Ryōta,” said Shadow darkly. “Good to see you’re still slinking around.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Sunset. Ryōta just looked at her nails, and she caught on, terrified and pulled them away. “She bet her fingernails?!”

“Like I said…” said Shadow. “The stakes in this school are higher than Polaris.”

“All of a sudden, I’m not so sure about this,” said Rainbow. Then she glanced to the floor and saw that Fluttershy had fainted.

“Yeah, I actually gotta agree with that,” said Sonic. “Shadow, are you sure we can’t talk you down to a trip to Vegas?”

“Are you kidding?” asked Shadow. “Do you have any idea how much people at this school bet?”

“Two hundred fifty billion yen on 21!” someone at a Roulette table yelled. The team was shocked.

“Wait a sec,” said Twilight, pulling out a calculator. “Two-point-five billion? That’s equal to… two billion and three hundred forty million dollars?!” Rarity doubled over and had to lean against a column to catch her breath.

“I- I can’t even-” she panted. “How do they-?”

“These guys play for keeps,” said Knuckles. “There’s no way we could win at this place.”

“Wait,” said Silver, snapping his fingers. “Yes there is, and its name is Silver DeLorean.” At that, Rainbow snickered. “And exactly what is so funny?”

“Your last name is DeLorean?” she asked.

“Yeah, and trust me, I’ve heard all the jokes,” said Silver.

“More importantly, what the hell are you talking about?” asked Sonia.

“Uh, a-dahoy?” asked Silver as he levitated a deck of cards out of his coat with his powers.

“Of course,” said Sonic, understanding it. “Silver’s a telepath and a telekinetic. With his powers, gambling is basically making a withdrawal from the bank.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that,” said Fluttershy, who had woken up and gotten off the ground. “I think we might be cheating.”

“So what?” asked Yumeko. “Half the students here cheat too. Part of the trick is figuring out how they do it.”

“So we’re basically cheating a bunch of cheaters?” asked Sonic. “Sounds fair to me.”

“Besides, even if they did figure out how we _might_ be cheating,” said Silver. “I can guarantee it will not be further from the truth.”

“Alright fine,” said Sunset, still apprehensive. “But I’m still not sure about this.”

“If it makes you feel any better, you girls can just watch from the sidelines as we rake in the dough,” said Manic. And that’s exactly what they did; Sunset and the girls stayed on the sides while Silver won over and over at everything. Every time an opponent thought they had him beat or figured out, Silver just read their minds or adjusted things on the table and in his hand until he was winning even bigger than before. But then it happened; a young woman with pale skin, long blinding white hair braided into large loops on the sides of her head and blue eyes and lipstick walked into the main hall and locked eyes with Silver.

“And who might you be, worm?” she asked. “I haven’t seen you around the school.”

“I’m just visiting with the rest of my friends,” said Silver, gesturing around. “Name’s Silver DeLorean. And you are?”

“That’s the student council president,” said Ryōta in fear. “Kirari Momobami. Rumors say she’s never lost a single game, not even to Yumeko.”

“Oh jeez,” Sonic whispered to the others. “Silver’s getting in too deep.”

“Well then, Ms. Momobami…” said Silver, flipping a deck of cards between his hands. “Up for a friendly game of poker?” The whole room went silent in seconds. Ryōta told the team that no one who has dared challenge Kirari in the past has made it away from the table alive. And that’s if she accepted in the first place. But she smirked as she looked at Silver.

“Why not? I’ve got nothing better to do,” she said. Everyone in the room gasped and screeched as Silver smirked, knowing he had her right where he wanted her.

“Alright then,” he said, and Shadow set the table. “Let’s dance.” That game seemed to drag on for nearly eternity when really, they were barely into the first hand of the game. Silver quickly read Kirari’s mind like a cheap paperback book, penetrating every mental barrier she had surprisingly set up. And saw her hand was a full house. Silver quickly and quietly used his powers to transform every card in his hand to a straight Royal Flush.

“All in,” he said, pushing his entire accumulated fortune of 20.7 billion yen forward. The audience was shocked at his willingness to throw away that kind of money.

“I call your bluff,” said Kirari, pushing forward her own stack of the same amount. The two laid out their hands on the table and Kirari was honestly shocked when she saw Silver had beaten her. “What?! How?!?”

“What can I say?” asked Silver, gathering all the chips into a large bag. “Guess I’m just lucky. Mostly because of the fact that I am currently walking away with three hundred eighty-seven million five hundred four thousand US dollars in cheap plastic chips.” At that, the group left the table and used Tails’ handheld to transfer the chips into the exact amount Silver won in cold hard US cash before they walked for the door, but not before they heard Kirari yell…

“KILL THEM!” At that, essentially the entire student body present charged after them.

“Now might be a good time to leave,” said Sunset.

“Agreed,” said Shadow, as he held a Chaos Emerald in front of the group. “Chaos Control.” Then, just before any of the students could do anything to stop them, the whole team vanished in a green flash, reappearing back at the guys’ new house.

“Y’know, just me thinking practically here, but that might come back to bite us in the future,” said Rainbow.

“Well yeah, but… it was fun, wasn’t it?” asked Silver, carrying a huge sack of cash.

“It really was,” said Pinkie. “So how about we divvy up the loot?” They quickly did so, and all ended up with 27,681,428 dollars and 57 cents. Just then, Rarity received a call and quickly picked up.

“Hello?” she said. “Oh, Mrs. Rose. So nice to hear from you again. Hmm? Really? Oh, of course, me and Lily get along wonderfully. She’ll be fine under my care. Well, I’m not sure. Just let me just check my schedule and- Oh dear. I- I’m sorry, Mrs. Rose, I’m afraid I can’t make it that day. No, my friend Silver and I are going to the Young Designers’ Gala. Yes, we just got the invitations. Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t know what to do. Unless… Can you please hold for just one second?” Then she looked up from the phone. “I need someone to babysit a family-friend’s daughter tomorrow night, please.”

“We’re rich now, hire a real sitter,” said Silver.

“I would, but I don’t exactly trust someone I find on the internet with a delicate flower like Lily Pad,” said Rarity. “Wait… Pinkie, Manic, Sonia, would you be willing?”

“Well, I guess,” said Sonia.

“You can count on me!” saluted Pinkie.

“Sure, I’m great with kids,” said Manic. “We’re in.”

“Excellent,” said Rarity, going back to the phone. “No, I’m still here. My friends Pinkie Pie, and Sonia and Manic Prower can substitute for me. No, not to worry, they’ll do fine. Mm-hm. Yes, of course. Good night.” Then she hung up, happy to have such good friends.


End file.
